"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
— Comissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Planetary Datalinks")

Over on the funny side, first place comes about thanks to a numbers error on our part that seemed to make 10 years disappear from the history of a Canadian copyright collective. After this was pointed out, justok offered a possible explanation for the discrepancy:

If Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain, then where is the incentive for Arthur Conan Doyle to write new ones?

For editor's choice on the funny side, we head back to the post about the UK porn filter — which was accidentally blocking the website of its own political advocate. Josh in CharlotteNC responded with a spin on an old classic:

First they came for the politicians, and no one cared.
Next they came... oh, wait.
The End.

As usual, the FUNNY here is what you don't see:

and struck me that because Meanie Mike doesn't want grifters to use the awesome value of Techdirt's re-written content to leverage their advertising, that he suppresses SPAM! -- Yes, Mike actually doesn't believe in the synergy of user-generated content, linkage, and that those added links promote Techdirt! When comes to his own interests, Mike doesn't practice his own notions. Mike roots out those making commercial use of his product, right? -- While he advocates that content creators let grifters like Kim Dotcom use their products for advertising revenue! -- I know that the fanboy-trolls won't see the similarity, but it's real. Wouldn't cost Mike anything to let his content be used for free advertising, no more than costs those whose products were on Megaupload, right? Mike would still have his site and all its content -- plus some potential promotion of Techdirt! -- just as the content creators still have their products, right? Oh, sure, you can argue that spam would de-value Techdirt, but that's a potential: Mike hasn't actually got those future revenues... It's QUITE closely similar, kids.

Mike is all for using someone else's content, but doesn't allow just anyone who wishes to use his even though his is just a bit of re-written text.You've no right to call yourself a pirate if don't even think you're STEALING! Now, ship up or shape out, landlubbers!

Re: As usual, the FUNNY here is what you don't see:

Huh. That's a new lie. Mike doesn't allow other people to re-use his content however they like? How long did it take you to make that one up, OOTB? I remember countless comments from Mike where he says to people "Go ahead, repost our content. Copy entire articles if you want. I don't mind"

I'm not even going to bother explaining Mike's reasoning. I know it's a lie. You know it's a lie.

Re: Re: As usual, the FUNNY here is what you don't see:

It's some degenerative disorder in his brain. He's getting worse and worse by the day. The best course of action is to ignore him. I'm not even bothering to report, I just skip the comment when I see the nick.